Jim Hudson, a safety on the New York Jets team that upset the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III, will have his brain and spine studied by specialists at Boston University who have become renowned for studying brain trauma in athletes, the New York Times reported.

Hudson died last Tuesday at age 70, and his wife, Lise, told the Times the cause was Parkinson’s dementia. Doctors believed that it was brought on by football, she added, and he requested that his brain and spine be donated to the doctors at the school’s Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy.

“He was a hard-hitting, tough football player,” Hudson’s widow told the Times. “What he wanted to do was help researchers come up with alternatives to protect players better, especially kids coming up.’’

Dozens of athletes have pledged their brains and spinal cords to the center since the “brain bank” was established at Boston University’s center. Several have been diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative disease caused almost exclusively by sports-related injuries.

Hudson is the player who intercepted the flea-flicker thrown by the Colts’ Earl Morrall late in the first half of the 16-7 Jets win. Colts' wide receiver Jimmy Orr is immortalized in replays waving futilely downfield with no defender near him.

After starring on Texas’s 1963 national championship team, Hudson played six years with the Jets and retired after the 1970 season.